Media misinterpret statement on Buhari’s need for more rest – Presidency

*Says President doesn’t want anything coloured on his behalf

One of The DEFENDER’s respondents believed that some Nigerians, who chose not to believe what the aids of the President, particularly Mr. Femi Adesina, were saying about his vacation “are only trying to make another Reuben Abati out of Femi Adesina, forgetting that Abati and Adesina are not the same.  The collection of aids that are working with Buhari have nothing to hide about the health of their principal.

The Presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s health status is not as terrible as speculated and expresses concern that Tuesday’s statement that the President needed more rest was misinterpreted by the media.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated this early while featuring on a television programme, monitored by The DEFENDER.

President Buhari is currently on an extended vacation in the United Kingdom to complete and receive the results of series of tests recommended by his doctors.

Asked to explain Buhari’s current health status, Adesina responded: “The current health status of the President is that it is not as terrible as people make it to seem. In his own communication, he says no cause for worry.”

Adesina maintained that the Tuesday’s statement that Buhari needed more rest was misinterpreted by the media.

He said the statement was in past tense, talking about Buhari’s health condition as of the time he was leaving Nigeria on January 19.

On when the president would come back, he responded: “Well, we do not know when he will be back, but when he is coming, he will communicate.”

Adesina said he did not need to talk directly to Buhari on the telephone before he could authenticate the transmissions from the president.

According to him, President Buhari is an honest man “who does not want anything to be coloured on his behalf.”

“It is a matter of my personal decision and style (that I don’t talk directly to the president). All those I spoke with, his personal physician, his CD (chief detail), his domestic aide, I can tell them to take the phone to Mr. President that I want to speak to him. I know Mr. President, he will speak with me. But I’ve decided not to talk to him because I do not need that telephone conversation to authenticate the health of Mr. President.

“There is enough authentication, there is one from the Acting President, there is one from the Senate President and there is from the Speaker of the House of Representatives and many others. So, I do not need to authenticate the status of the health of Mr. President by speaking to him.”

One of The DEFENDER’s respondents believed that some Nigerians, who chose not to believe what the aids of the President, particularly Mr. Femi Adesina, were saying about his vacation “are only trying to make another Reuben Abati out of Femi Adesina, forgetting that Abati and Adesina are not the same.  The collection of aids that are working with Buhari have nothing to hide about the health of their principal.

“If, after all that you have been told about the President’s vacation and the need to have enough rest are still not clear to you, particularly the Afenifere leader, Papa Ayo Adebanjo, who said Femi Adesina and Lai Mohammed didn’t tell him the truth, then you can choose what to believe.  While you do that, however, you should have it behind your minds that President Buhari has not caused any confusion for governance and the polity but you the untrusting people have been trying to do and should carry the blame for your own distrust,” said the respondent.